Pre-Beta macOS Utility

Keep Downloads usable with a cleaner, not a rule engine.

DropSort is a planned Mac app for people whose Downloads folder turns into low-grade daily cleanup. The first version is intentionally narrow and opinionated: watch a folder, suggest starter rules, preview every move before it runs, ask you to approve one visible move plan, and let you undo the last sort run if the result is wrong, without turning into a mini-Hazel or another broad rule engine on day one. The current test is not “better than your own script.” It is whether calmer defaults, preview, and undo matter for people who do not want to keep maintaining rules or scripts.

Product Concept

Show the plan before the files move.

This is the current product question in one frame: can a small Mac utility earn a try by previewing exactly what it would do with installers, ZIP files, PDFs, docs, and exports before anything changes?

Concept only. This is not a released screenshot or a public beta build.

Preview-first sort plan

Current folder

PKG Notion.pkg
ZIP client-assets.zip
PDF invoice-may.pdf
CSV campaign-export.csv
DOC brief-notes.docx

Proposed moves

Notion.pkg Installers
client-assets.zip Archives
invoice-may.pdf Documents
campaign-export.csv Exports

What the first build is supposed to do

Watch Downloads or another selected working folder.
Offer a few practical starter rules for common clutter types.
Preview where files will move before anything changes.
Let you undo the latest sort run if the result is wrong.

What it is not pretending to do

No account requirement in the planned MVP.
No cloud sync promise.
No giant automation system on day one.
No claim that people already happy with Hazel or homegrown scripts are the first buyer.
No claim that a public beta or App Store build exists yet.

Fastest useful reply: one short email is enough. The strongest current packaging question is not the exact price. It is whether an opinionated, preview-first version that starts with PDFs, ZIP files, installers, docs, and exports needs a free preview/manual mode or short trial before the $9.99 one-time offer matters, as long as every sort starts from a visible move plan instead of background shuffling.

Trial first I would want a free preview/manual mode or a short trial before price matters. Source first Grouping by browser, app, or site of origin matters more than file type. Cleanup first The boring-file cleanup wedge is enough for me to try first.

Join pre-beta list Send the messiest folder pattern you deal with now. Default behavior check Reply with the one missing default behavior before you would try it. $9.99 pricing reaction Reply with “reasonable after preview”, “too high”, or “would only try free first”.

Open question: free preview first or paid-first?

Early replies suggest the $9.99 one-time price may be acceptable, but newer adjacent-builder traction says the first step may need to feel even lower-risk than a price question alone. The current packaging question is whether a free preview/manual mode or a short trial is needed before paid auto-watch.

Open question: source or file type?

One buyer signal says organizing by source may feel more useful than generic file-type buckets. That means browser/app/site of origin might matter more than plain categories like ZIP or PDF.

Open question: cleaner or file hider?

The product only works if it keeps Downloads usable without turning into a black box. The sharper question now is whether one visible move plan, one approval step, and one-step undo are enough to make automation feel organized instead of hidden.

Open question: narrower cleaner or broader organizer?

A fresh buyer question is whether this is just another Binky-style organizer. The current test is deliberately narrower: preview-first trust, one-step undo, and boring non-image cleanup before broader source-aware routing or deeper rule logic.

Prefer public feedback and already use GitHub? Comment on the public feedback thread or open a structured GitHub issue for beta interest, non-image v1 feedback, or pricing reaction.

Who this is for

Mac users who repeatedly clean up PDFs, installers, ZIP files, exports, and stray documents, and who want something simpler than a full automation tool.

Positioning

An opinionated cleaner for the single job of keeping Downloads and work-in-progress folders under control, with preview-first trust as the default and no ambition to become a full source-aware rule engine in v1.

Pricing hypothesis

The current test is a one-time paid utility around $9.99, not a subscription.

What feedback is most useful right now

Tell us what clutter builds up, what current tool you tried, whether preview-first is a hard requirement, whether the non-image-first v1 already sounds useful, whether you would want a short trial or a free preview/manual mode before paying, whether source-based grouping sounds more useful than file-type buckets, whether you actually want broader source-aware routing instead of a calmer cleaner, and what one default behavior would still be missing.

Scope under test now

Priority file types: PDFs, ZIP files, installers, docs, and exports.
Preview before move, approve one visible plan, then use one-step undo if the plan is wrong.
Simple default rules before custom automation complexity.

Explicitly out of v1 for now

No promise that image sorting is solved in the first build.
No semantic labeling like receipts, diagrams, tutorials, or promo graphics yet.
No full rule-engine ambition if a smaller cleaner already solves the first job.
No blind background cleanup that moves files without a visible plan you can approve first.

Privacy policy

Covers the current interest page and the planned local-first MVP posture.

Open the privacy policy

Support

Covers the current pre-beta status, contact path, and what the first build is trying to solve.

Open the support page